Wallace still going strong

Monday

Sep 28, 2009 at 8:06 PM

Rick Peterson

Retirement? What retirement?

Even though NASCAR legend Rusty Wallace climbed out of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge for the final time at the end of the 2005 season, the 55-time Cup winner and 1989 series champion still is just as busy as he was as a driver ... maybe busier.

"I don't just have one job, but I don't think I could ever put up with just having one job," said the 53-year-old St. Louis, Mo., native. "I like to be involved with multiple things."

Wallace has his wish, juggling his job as an ESPN analyst with his duties as a car owner for his son Steve's NASCAR Nationwide Series team, also while continuing to be actively involved with Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa.

"Obviously I love working with ESPN and I won a lot of races, so I feel like I've got the knowledge to educate the fans with what's going on," said Wallace, who will be at Kansas Speedway this weekend for NASCAR's Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series races. "On the other end, my son's coming up, and it's family, so I'm really putting a lot of effort into him to get his career going because if I don't do it, nobody else is going to do it. Nobody's going to take a chance in this economy on a young talent.

"I don't ever feel like I'm overworked, or what I call double-parked. I do get double-parked occasionally, but not a whole lot."

As a dad and car owner, Wallace is proud of what Steve Wallace has accomplished this year, the most successful season of his young career.

"He's three years into Nationwide Racing and he's getting better and better," Rusty said. "He's (fifth) in the points right now and really making some good headway. It's a huge gain from last year. You have to remember he's only 22 years old right now, but when he first started driving, my gosh, he had a lot of wrecks. He was super fast, but he was wrecking a lot, just fearless.

"We really got on him and it was tough getting sponsors and stuff and I said, 'We've got to finish these races.' Then he just actually slowed down and quit sitting on the poles and quit wrecking the cars but didn't quit running fast. This is his third year, and now he's in a lot of top-fives, running up front, he's looking good and he's not tearing cars up."

Broadcasting Steve's races puts Rusty in a tough position, but he says it is doable.

"I do realize working for ESPN what my limitations are, and I think I do a good job at it," Wallace said. "You don't ever see me saying, 'Look at my kid, look at my kid, look at my kid.' I don't do none of that and if I find that he's up there getting it done, generally a guy like a Jerry Punch or an Andy Petree or Marty Reid will say that. I'm not going to say that. I think we've got a good balance of how to do this, and I've been comfortable."

In addition to walking the tight rope when broadcasting Steve's races, Rusty also knows that he is going to have to step on some of his buddies' toes from time to time. He just hopes they understand that he is just doing his job.

Recently Wallace and broadcast partner Brad Daugherty were critical of a decision made by Penske Racing, headed by Wallace's former car owner Roger Penske.

Pat Tryson, Kurt Busch's crew chief for the No. 2 car, made the decision to leave Penske at the end of the current season. In turn, Penske Racing decided Tryson could continue as Busch's crew chief but must stay away from the shop between races.

"Myself and Brad Daugherty, on our show, said what Penske did with Pat Tryson was the dumbest thing (we've) ever seen anybody in my life do," Wallace said. "If you're going to win a title you've got to have a crew chief involved in every aspect of that car, the operation. They've got to know everything. You don't tell the guy to stay away from the shop, you just show up on race day. We called them out on it. We stay stuff like that, and we have to do that.

"Roger Penske's one of my best friends and been my mentor for life. I love him to death, and Roger's the type of guy that could see me next and go, 'Why the hell did you do that to me?' I'll say, 'Because you screwed up.' I'll say it like that and he'll roll his eyes and it will be over."

In addition to his other duties Wallace continues to be associated with Iowa Speedway.

"I'm very, very much involved in that race track, mostly in helping it get built and designing it," he said. "I did a lot of town hall meetings, met with the governor and a lot of people and helped them get their NASCAR dates. I'm definitely actively involved, and I know what's going on there all the time."

At the end of the day, Wallace likes what he is doing -- all that he is doing.

In fact, probably the only thing Wallace doesn't enjoy in the current economic times is the constant battle of trying to come up with adequate sponsorship for his race team.

"It's really, really hard," he said. "It will make your head pound at times. It will make you go, 'Why am I doing this?'

"Then you sit back and realize that the reason you're doing it is because it's your family. My wife's here at the shop, my daughter works here, my oldest son works here and Steven drives the car. That's a true family operation."

Rick Peterson can be reached at (785) 295-1129 or rick.peterson@cjonline.com

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